Peugeot Citroen vehicle sales drop in 2008

PARIS 
PSA Peugeot Citroen said Tuesday its sales of cars and light trucks slumped 4.9 percent last year owing to a sharp downturn in its key western European market.

France's largest automaker sold 3.26 million vehicles last year, down from 3.43 million in 2007. The Peugeot brand reported sales 3.2 percent lower, while cars badged Citroen saw sales slide 7.2 percent, the company said in a statement.

The Paris-based car maker said its sales in western Europe, where it makes roughly two-thirds of its sales, fell by 10.5 percent in 2008, due to weak markets in Spain, Britain and Italy.

PSA Peugeot Citroen's sales confirmed the trend already seen at rival French automaker Renault SA, which last week reported a 4.2 percent drop in annual sales and warned of possibly worse to come, as bleak prospects have caused auto makers worldwide to dramatically cut production.

PSA Peugeot Citroen gave no guidance for 2009. The company is scheduled to report 2008 earnings on Feb. 11.

PSA Peugeot Citroen didn't break out its monthly sales figures for December, a particularly bad month for other car makers. Renault's vehicle sales fell 28.5 percent last month as the global economic crisis led to a "brutal" collapse of the market, the carmaker said in a statement earlier this month.

The French carmakers association CCFA said earlier this month that new car registrations in France fell 9.8 percent in December, with Renault taking the brunt of the sales slump.

The European carmakers association ACEA is scheduled to report December car registration figures on Thursday. In November, European new car registrations plunged by almost 26 percent, according to the Brussels-based group, the seventh consecutive monthly decline and the worst such drop since 1999.